In the last few years it has become increasingly common when dealing with users for them to refer to the most fundamental software products on their machine by the wrong names. In particular, an awful lot of users seem complete incapable of telling the difference between Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office – and it is doing my head in.

Despite what a distressingly large number of plebeians may believe, the following products DO NOT EXIST:

“Office Vista”

“Windows 2007”

If I had a tenner for every time I heard the first of those in particular, I wouldn’t feel the need to play the lottery; I’d just volunteer to deliver Office 2007 training in every school in the country, and I could retire after a year. This is partly Microsoft’s fault for having both a Windows 2000 and Office 2000, followed by a Windows XP and Office XP. However, the fact that 8 years later people still seem to believe this pattern is being followed is solely down to their own inattentiveness.

It’s only a matter of time now until someone asks me about “that Office 7”. Little do they know that I have a copy of Office 7.0 ready to install on their machine the moment they ask about it.

About

These were the trials, tribulations, and outright rants of an IT professional on the front lines of technical support in the UK education sector. Since moved on to pastures new.